Most common causes of wrong energy bills

There can be many causes for your energy supplier issuing you with an incorrect energy bill. Below we have listed the most common causes.

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Energy

There are, unfortunately, plenty of other things that can go wrong but whatever the problem is, you need to tell the company about it as soon as possible.

• Your bill can be wrong because it is based on wrong estimated readings. Check the reading given on the bill against your actual meter. If it is much different, contact your supplier and give them the actual reading so they can send you an adjusted bill.
• You can end up being billed for energy used by the previous occupant if you move into a new home and don't read the meter and tell the supplier the reading.
• You can be billed for energy used by the people who move in after you, if you move out of your old home without reading the meter and telling the supplier on the date you move out.
• The meter can be misread (by the meter reader or the householder). Occasionally readings from the standard rate and cheap rate dials of a two-rate electricity meter are mixed up.
• The wrong meter can be read. For example, where all the meters for a block of housing are in the same basement.
• The supplier's records about the meter can be incorrect. Perhaps they may not have recorded that the meter had been exchanged so that new readings won't follow on from the old ones. Sometimes people are sent bills to pay even though they have a pre-payment ('pay as you go') meter; metric gas meters can be billed as imperial.
• The supplier's records can be wrong about whether you have Economy 7 or other non-'standard' tariff.
• There could be an address mix-up. This is most common where houses have been recently divided into flats, and new properties where the original builder's plot numbers don't match the eventual street numbers.
• The wrong contract terms could be used through administrative errors - perhaps, for example, discounts are omitted.
• You could be on record as being on a commercial contract (you will be charged VAT at 17.5% instead of 5%). Sometimes this happens if you move into a new home that was previously a business.

Note: where suppliers get a meter reading that doesn't seem to follow on from the previous reading, they often ignore it completely and send an estimated bill.